A communication interface between two electrical components, such as between a processor and a storage device, may be arranged in a manner that is operable in accordance with at least a lower speed transmission protocol and a higher speed transmission protocol. Each of the lower speed transmission protocol and the higher speed transmission protocol may have different requirements with regard to signal frequency, signal swing, and/or coding/decoding scheme. In some applications, the communication interface uses the lower speed transmission protocol for transmitting control signals and handshake signals and uses the higher speed transmission protocol for transmitting user data.
For example, in a USB 3.0 interface, user data is transmitted according to a transmission protocol having a signal frequency ranging from 0.5 GHz to 2.5 GHz. Also, in the USB 3.0 interface, control signals for initializing communication and power management are transmitted using a Low Frequency Periodic Signaling (LFPS) protocol having a signal frequency ranging from 10 MHz to 50 MHz.